Dear friends of the dragon boat community of Europe,
Happy new year from Sicily, where I’m in Holiday with my family and friends.
My first year of office was very busy and exiting… and I’m very happy to serve you as EDBF President.
The European Dragon Boat Federation has 25 Nations in Memberships.
We put the rejuvenation of the dragon boat sport first.
Then our traditions, culture and the strong will to reaffirm the EDBF role of governing body for Dragon Boat Sport in Europe and the inestimable value of our Continental Championships Titles.
Here it is a brief summary of what we have done, together with the Executive Committee and the Council
– Update EDBF Statutes: pending since 2015 – DONE
– Update EDBF Bye Laws: pendind since 2005 – DONE
– EDBF Registration in Italy as a not for profit association
– New Logo – DONE
– New Web Site – DONE
– New Social Media policy on FB, Instagram and, recently, Twitter. DONE
– The election of Chair Holder and Members of each commission
– Good Governance:
a) 7 Executive Meetings
b) 8 Council Meetings
c) 1 Congress
ALL DONE!!!
– Transparency:
Documents and minutes are all published on the EDBF documents page of the EDBF Web Site
– The European Nations Championships in Brandenburg with more the 1700 partecipants representing 17 Nations
– The EDBF Forum in Seville, in a new format, with the attendance of the representatives of 18 Nations, the Gala Dinner with 104 attendees and the 1st Dragon Boat Award Ceremony
….DONE!!!
– As EDBF President
a) I visited Armenia, Germany, Spain and Czech Repubblic
b) I was part of the IDBF Liason Team at the SportAccord in Bangkok and at the IF Forum in Lausanne
– At International level we organized an historical EDBF/IDBF meeting in Rome with ICF/ECA representatives
– Next EDBF Championships Locations have been appointed: 2019 Seville (Spain), 2020 Kiev (Ukraine) and 2021 Barcelona (Spain)
In 2019 we wish to keep open a red line to listen and better understand the aspirations both of the most active members and of members with limited resources
We will focus on our 6 milestones:
– first embracing changes for a better future,
– second decentralization and empowerment of our International and national officials with education programmes,
– third better integrity and trust,
– fourth sustainable and social responsible projects,
– fifth revenue generation making our events always more actractive for paddlers and sponsors and with successfull merchandising
– and, last but not least, solid and strong communication with our web site, social media and web streaming.
In conclusion I wish to express a special vote of thanks to the Office of the President, the Secretary General Julie Doyle, the Treasurer Maura Dezi and my assistent Antonella Germano, to the 4 Vice Presidents Peter Jarosi, Ute Beker, Petr Klima and Kim Beckwith, to the Members Representative Andrew Menzies, to the Chair Holders of the EDBF Commissions, Saed Abdalla for Competition and Special Projects, Antonio De Lucia for Medical and Pshycolgist, Michela Scacchetti for Marketing and Media, Ana Sokratous for Women in Sport and Josè Maria Carrillo for Youth Development.
And to the Race Officials Team for their great efforts for our sport.
May I mention also my menthors and predecessors Mike Haslam EDBF Founder and President of Honour and Alan Van Caubergh EDBF Honorary President.
My best wishes to the Organizers of the European Club Crews Championships in Seville on the next July.
Crews… do not miss the provisional entries deadline on the 6th February! Join the EDBF Championships
To all of you, dragon boat paddlers and supporters an happy and successfull 2019 in the sport and in the life.
Let’s keep in touch, indeed!!!